After playing the 'fleeing' part of the prologue through some 6 times, I've decided on playing a male 'nice' rogue.

Shit's awesome so far. Anders hasn't said anything witty so far, though. Yes, I get that he's been through a lot of shit, but what's the point of bringing a character back if you're gonna take his sthick out? Also, he's already coming on to me. Think I'm gonna save THAT romance to my female run...

Ro Wong wrote:Lots of mention about Loghain killing the Archdemon, too. And Connor being killed.

Edit: Plus the issues people've reported of it altering decisions you made in DA2, as well. Meaning some choices you made earlier would be changed later.

You kept Loghain alive in DA:O?

"Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits."

I heard lots of complaints about Merril being just another Tali simply because she's babbling a lot.By a friend of mine explains that she is new in human society and all that babbling is just her being nervous. And I'm buying that shit.

Remni wrote:I kept Loghain alive in mine too.. actually everyone stayed alive in my first game (and for some reason, I couldnt use it as a load file for DA2).

Also, anyone else think Flemeth is a badass now? And Merril amuses me, so much babbling.

Huh, Zevran died in mine, and I killed Loghain. Alistair married what's-her-face

"Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits."

Glahardt wrote:I heard lots of complaints about Merril being just another Tali simply because she's babbling a lot.By a friend of mine explains that she is new in human society and all that babbling is just her being nervous. And I'm buying that shit.

Well that's pretty much true because she flat out says she's new to human society as soon as you meet her,

Ro Wong wrote:Lots of mention about Loghain killing the Archdemon, too. And Connor being killed.

Edit: Plus the issues people've reported of it altering decisions you made in DA2, as well. Meaning some choices you made earlier would be changed later.

You kept Loghain alive in DA:O?

No. Was bringing that up since it was one of the changed details people had mentioned.

Ah, all right.

"Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits."

I'm not quite sure what the point of that video is besides "bwaaaaahaaaa, DA 2 suuuuuuucks". All the unlockable content is kinda stupid, but nothing that really impacts the game, it's just EA trying to stir up to some cheap promotion. I'm gonna avoid it completely going forward, because it feels like cheating, getting all these overpowered items at the very beginning of the game (the Blood Dragon armor was the best heavy armor for most of Origins).

It took me quite a while to notice that the design of the elves have changed quite a bit, from typically pointy-eared-pretty-humans, to more fae or fairytale like bug eyed, nose-bridge-less people. Also, the dalish all talk irish, which I'm less than excited about.

Glahardt wrote:I heard lots of complaints about Merril being just another Tali simply because she's babbling a lot.By a friend of mine explains that she is new in human society and all that babbling is just her being nervous. And I'm buying that shit.

I can definitely see the similarities, as I thought of that myself when I first met her. They're both kinda dorky and naive/innocent, and there's some parallels with how the elves and the quarians are portrayed, but these comparisons are only really skin-deep, as far as I can tell. Tali only gets flustered being around SHEPARD COMMANDER because he's such a manly man of manliness (she's usually fairly assertive when shit goes down), while Merill is constantly a fish out of water.

Besides, Bioware has always relied on certain character types. Ripping themselves off is nothing new.

Also, Merill's not really a i, as Jay talked about. She's young, sure, young enough that it seems slightly wrong for a bearded Hawke to woo her, but she has a big rack and stuff.

Fenris, on the other hand, looks like he's taken directly out of an anime with his white hair, lean body, very large sword.

You'll be surprised as how they changed how the Quinari in the game too. They definitely look more beastly now.

As for the extra items, most of them you cant even use. The weapons are the only things that can be spread between your party members, but the armors you can only put on your main char and gotta have high enough stats for it, which you can basically get around lvl 6 or 7. Although that also depends on your class.

I find it more surprising that nothing is off limits for your character as far as armor goes as long as you have the stats for it. So I can get Blood Dragon Armor on my own Hawke who's a mage.

Remni wrote:You'll be surprised as how they changed how the Quinari in the game too. They definitely look more beastly now.

I do think it's a little too much though. They're supposed to be completely logical beings like Vulcans but now they just look like beasties.

Remni wrote:As for the extra items, most of them you cant even use. The weapons are the only things that can be spread between your party members, but the armors you can only put on your main char and gotta have high enough stats for it, which you can basically get around lvl 6 or 7. Although that also depends on your class.

Eh, you get those after arriving inside of Kirkwall and they're just a little better than the average items you can get at the time. Another few levels and the items dropped start getting better.

Remni wrote:I find it more surprising that nothing is off limits for your character as far as armor goes as long as you have the stats for it. So I can get Blood Dragon Armor on my own Hawke who's a mage.

Now why would you want to put like, 10 points into strength for a mage?

Also, I giggled at the "Pigeon population plunging in Ferelden" comment from the Hanged Man bartender.

Has anyone gotten past Act 1 yet? I have a feeling There's Something I Need To Know, before going into the deep roads. At least, I'm finishing up all side-quest, since I bet they won't be available after.

Glahardt wrote:

Remni wrote:You'll be surprised as how they changed how the Quinari in the game too. They definitely look more beastly now.

I do think it's a little too much though. They're supposed to be completely logical beings like Vulcans but now they just look like beasties.

The logic, they're ruling, though. I'm really liking these sub-groups of Qunari like the Val-shoth(sp?), their funny words and the exposition on the Qun, horns or no. I can understand Bioware wanted them to "pop" more, visually, now that they are a major player in the plot.

Also, I giggled at the "Pigeon population plunging in Ferelden" comment from the Hanged Man bartender.

I don't get that one. I'm sure it's a reference to the first in some way, but I can't remember.

Ah, of course. Really should have caught that one, Shale always did make a big deal of pigeons and their shittings. Not that I blame her.

I discovered something fairly interesting, after skimming the strategy guide preview over on the official DA site: Hawke has 3 different 'personalities' built by your conversations. His delivery of lines and intonations will apparently differ, depending on whether you've primarily chosen 'nice', 'funny' or 'bad' (blue/green, purple or red) options. I had noticed that mine sounded kind of whiny and friendly, even on evil lines. From what little I've heard on it, I think this is more pronounced on the female Hawke. Kinda cool, though it's probably also why all conversation options are locked into those three (well, six) categories.

Remni wrote:I find it more surprising that nothing is off limits for your character as far as armor goes as long as you have the stats for it. So I can get Blood Dragon Armor on my own Hawke who's a mage.

Now why would you want to put like, 10 points into strength for a mage?

Also, I giggled at the "Pigeon population plunging in Ferelden" comment from the Hanged Man bartender.

Well once you get passed 25 Magic, you really dont need to bump it up anymore really, other than it adding some extra damage to your spells. If you wanted, after that point you could easily level up whatever stats you want. Of course I'm not doing that and mostly just pumping up Magic/Wisdom/Con.

And yes, I also laughed at the pigeon remark too. There's a lot of really good party conversations that go on too. Had a great one between Varric, Isabella and Arelia with the first line from Varric being "I shit you not, the size of it was massive".

I like how Hawke now also sometimes says something in those random conversations... the 'knives' conversation between Varric and Isabella being a very good exampleOr when Bethany asks Isabella what the seven ways to please a woman are

Still cant say whether I like the game or not, at least the character models look a shit load better than they did in DA:O... god I hated armor in that game

The "every quest is a sidequest" structure of the game continues, which, well, is kinda a let down. I do like side quests, but I also like a main quest that's actually significant. I think I could settle for something that isn't saving the world (which they seem to have avoided on purpose) if they provided some more meaningful missions, like more related to your party members, as with Mass Effect 2's loyalty missions. That's probably my main caveat with the game so far.

The whole first act is you playing errand boy and the only delivery you ever make is slaughter.

The second act is a little better, more of a narrative focus, bit more political intrigue, but it's so hard to distinguish from an important quest from one that isn't, because nothing holds any sense of urgency or great import because every fucking time you're fighting the same dudes for the same reasons (they got in your way) in the same fucking map. I've probably seen only four maps because they reuse so much. Any sense of drama is lost when I've been there like fifty times already.

I was attacked by "Crazed Guards" and my only indication that it was anything of the sort was the name "Crazed Guards", otherwise they acted precisely the same as every other fucking enemy. I mean honestly, you could add in a cutscene, dialogue, weird animation, ANYTHING. It's really just lazy game-making.

It seems a trend to me that the game is pretty meager in content, and sloppy on some of it, but that the actual game design is great. For instance, I do like the enemy role dynamic with mooks, tough guys, mages and assasins, I just wish there were more different types than just those 4.